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July 6, 2007

PPUG

I love watching things grow (children, tomatos, user communities, facial hair...) and contributing to the growth as well. I think there is something special about getting in on the ground floor of anything. I'm not talking about consciously trying to be a trend seeker looking for the next big thing, but serendipitously discovering or taking interest in something that hasn't captured the interest of many people you know or been mass marketed (I will take credit for being an early evangelist of Mojitos (the best ones use fresh sugar cane juice). Xiomara in L.A. is the only place outside Miami Beach where I've had them with freshly extracted sugar cane juice. I also prefer Mount Gay instead of white rum. I also used RIT to dye my Converse Chuck Taylor's purple in 1970 (back when Converse only sold white, red, and black Chucks), but that's another story and I digress...

Jacob Rosenberg and Aanarav Sareen have gotten the ball rolling and germinated the seeds (how's that for mixing metaphors) of the Premiere Pro User Group community. The first two meetings were held in NYC and LA. It's just in its infancy, which makes it exciting to watch it grow. It reminds me in a way of the old AE Fido list that grew out of the demise of the AOL CoSA forum and has grown from a few dozen, to a few hundred, to thousands of user participating in a virtual community. I look forward to seeing the PPUG blossom.

P.S. If you know a place that makes a mean mojito, leave a comment here.

March 22, 2007

A Gathering for AE users in NYC

The new AENY User Group will be having their monthly meeting on the 29th here. I am glad that my crazy travel schedule worked out enabling me to participate at this meeting.

I love going to AE user group meetings for two reasons: 1) I am in awe whenever I see the amazing things creative people (unlike myself) can do with After Effects and 2) I love the energy!. The AE users who attend user groups tend to be our most passionate users and are full of great ideas on how to improve the product and aren't shy about telling you (also nice to receive a few kudos as well).

In this new era of more open communication, I am happy to say that I will be showing some "exciting new software". I wonder what that will be?

While it won't be the first public look at this "exciting new software" (that happens on the 27th here); it will be the first in-depth look. The nice thing about showing "new" software is that for a brief moment in time, I know more about the product than the people who use it day in and day out.

If you happen to be in the vicinty, I hope you can make the meeting. Andrew Kramer is also presenting and I'm sure he will be showing some very cool techniques, tips, and tricks using After Effects.

February 1, 2006

Online Community in Italy

I received an email after my blog entry about After Effects User Groups from an AE user in Italy interested in having a user group in Italy. While it may take a while to get something like this going, after looking into this on this user's behalf, I discovered that there is an Adobe|Guru Web site which includes a Pro Video forum for Creatitve Pros using Adobe software in Italy, or if you simply prefer discussing Adobe software with others in Italian.

January 28, 2006

Getting Together

Online communities don't let geography be a barrier to communication and it certainly is convenient to converse with someone without having to worry about hygiene, or deal with traffic and parking. But for me, nothing beats having a conversation in person with someone who shares a mutual interest. If you happen to live in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, Chicago, Dallas , Detroit , Atlanta or New York ; these motion graphics user groups meet on a regular basis.

If there is a motion graphics or vfx user group that meets where you live, let me know and I'll add you to the Webroll.

January 20, 2006

Excellent After Effects Mailing List

Many moons ago, a passionate AE user from Sweden started an After Effects mailing list. The AE-List is a great example of a community of AE users sharing their views, AE tricks, plus providing feedback to the AE team.

Video of After Effects 7.0 Demo @ MGLA

On Tuesday Dave Simons, Michael Coleman, and myself gave an in-depth demo of what's new in After Effects 7.0 at MGLA http://www.mgla.org in L.A. [more on MGLA in another post to come].

Thanks to the great folks at Pixel Corps http://www.pixelcorps.com and DV Magazine, videos of the demo (for online or iPod viewing) are available at http://www.dv.com NOTE: DV.com is working through some QuickTime issues at the moment so if the download doesn't work, try a little later as they are working to resolve the issues.

In addition to the AE demo, Giles Baker our Sr. PM for Premiere Pro and Encore DVD gave the SRO crowd an in-depth look at the Production Studio and Premiere Pro 2.0, as well as brief looks at the new versions of Encore DVD 2.0 and Audition 2.0. These videos are also available on the DV.com web site. Highlights from Giles' presentation were: Dynamic Link, Clip Notes, Multicam, and the Frequency Space editing tools in Audition.